Healthy B.P.M.

We spend a lot of time indoors every day. For kids the average is six hours a day in school. For adults it’s at least eight hours inside of the buildings where they work. Then we spend all night in our homes: eating, playing, and sleeping. When do we take the time to enjoy the “great outdoors”? Fresh air is highly underrated. Granted the seasons often dictate how much time we can get outside. Getting outside on a regular basis can improve our health and sense of well-being. If nothing more than to give us a change of scenery.

The air we breathe on the inside is not as fresh as we need it to be. Dust is a fact of every day life. It collects on every surface. How often have you dusted and it seems that overnight that same dust reappeared? Dust swirls around us and makes its way into our respiratory system via nose and mouth. If you happen to occasionally burn a meal or two, those fumes get inhaled also. We need a break from the indoor air. Of course companies try to sell us products to clean our home or office air which is fine, but there is just no substitute for fresh air.

Our lungs appreciate fresh air. We may cough a bit at first as our lungs are getting rid of the impurities that we suck up on a regular basis. But, after a while we’ll begin to breathe deeper and deeper which brings more oxygen to our cells. Increased oxygen brings with it increased energy to do the things we need to do. More oxygen brings greater clarity to the brain, which needs twenty percent of our body’s oxygen to function. Don’t you want to think better than you have before?

Exercising outdoors in fresh air offers increased aerobic benefits. Taking in more clean air, helps improve our breathing technique. Better technique increases stamina. More oxygen to the muscles reduces that lactic acid build-up in the muscles which leads to cramping. It’s all good!

On the flip side, fresh air cannot be found everywhere outdoors. In large cities where factories (the few of them that are left) operate day and night, spewing smoke and particles into the air, fresh, clean air is at a premium. For people in the area, getting away from time to time will help.

Fresh air produces a healthy mind, clean lungs, and a calmer constitution when we actively use it. Getting outdoors should not be a chore, but a privilege. Enjoy the earth and get your dose of fresh air.